Community Guidelines

These guidelines were developed based on community input and best practices from existing sites. It is the goal of these guidelines to help foster a strong, supportive community.

Philosophy

The ePlaya exists to support the Burning Man community.

In order to do so, it must support the interests of ongoing ePlaya community members who may have a variety of interest that they bring to this forum that may be only peripheral to the actual Burning Man event. This also includes those Burning Man community members who only briefly interact online, and those who are joining the community and wish to gain an understanding of it.

Everyone is capable of contributing positively to the community, and a variety of viewpoints are both expected and encouraged.

Expected Behavior

Before posting messages, take some time to read the forums and get a sense of how people interact. Coming on like a bull in a china shop will not win friends - respecting the ongoing flow of conversation will.

There are different areas for different purposes within the ePlaya. Please respect their intended use, and keep on topic, especially when creating new threads, e.g., do not post political discussions in the Greeter's Station, etc.

"Cross-posting" - the act of posting the same message across multiple threads - is unwelcome.

Personal attacks are unwelcome.

Illegal activities are unwelcome.

The ePlaya is a limited commerce zone. Advertising items or services for sale and promoting fundraisers is allowed on a limited basis and only in specified areas. Please read through and adhere to our posted policies regarding commercial listings. Trades and barters are not allowed. Please keep the financial details (for things like camp dues, rideshares, etc) restricted to private messages between interested parties.

Gifting and sharing of resources are encouraged - you are welcome to use the Rideshares & Resource Sharing section of the board to plan rides to/from the event or share resources (generators, showers, etc) or offer gifts to the community. Ticket gifting should be posted on the Tickets Offered message board. While there are merits to conditional gifting (asking recipients to write essays or prove their worth) as a way to ensure that the person you're gifting to is going to contribute to the community, it can also come off as making people jump through hoops or entering a contest, and that can ruffle feathers. Solicitation of gifting is not allowed. If a gift has not been offered, it is not a gift.

We do not allow 'free to the right boy/girl' offers, period.

Contributions should be intelligible and add value to the discussion. Before jumping into a discussion, be sure to read the messages posted and reply in context.

Your words are a reflection on you. They are how you will be judged by others. Be careful in how you present yourself. Once you have committed your words, you will have to stand by them and coexist in the community, as they cannot be edited or deleted.

We encourage you to represent yourself as you are known in everyday life and on the playa. Being yourself on the ePlaya goes a long way to building lasting, trusting relationships. Multiple identities are discouraged, and using multiple identities to harass other users is not allowed.

Remember that there is a thinking, feeling human behind every username. Always.

Consequences
It is the goal of the administrators to exercise the powers set forth here in a fair and even-handed manner. In most situations, efforts to mediate the issues surrounding complaints will be attempted before action is taken against violators.

Upon investigation of a complaint, or personal observation of violation of the expected behaviors, administrators may take any of the following actions:

Topics or threads that are inappropriate for a certain discussion area may be moved or redirected to a more appropriate folder.

Personal attacks via username, topic or thread may result in the immediate deactivation of the account. User will be notified via email of the action.

Cross-posting may result in freezing repeated threads with a message notifying users to continue in one appropriate thread. The original cross-posting user will be notified of the action via email and reminded of the community guidelines against cross-posting.

Topics or threads that do not adhere to our posted policies regarding commercial listings may result in immediate deletion of same.

Multiple violations will result in the revocation of thread creation and/or posting privileges.

Continued or extreme violations will result in account deactivation.

Privacy Rights

Your words are your own. However, this is a public forum, and anyone - law enforcement, the media, your mother - may read them and act on the information they contain.

Information collected during registration, but not authorized for dissemination, will only be used by the administrators of the ePlaya if necessary to administer the ePlaya, and will not be used for any other purposes by Burning Man or disseminated to any other organizations.

Burning Man will not honor requests to delete Content nor deactivate user accounts solely upon complaint by other ePlaya users. In response to requests for enforcement action by users, the admins will investigate such accusations and determine whether the ePlaya Terms of Service or Guidelines have been violated before taking action.

Modifications
These policies are subject to revision in order to allow maximum possible freedom of expression while protecting individuals' immediate experience. Should changes occur that affect the potential privacy of your information, you will be notified and allowed to remove such information before the changes take effect. Modifications to these policies will be posted in the Announcements thread.